After Tovani’s chapters 6-End, I chose to look at the Double
Entry Diaries. I love this technique. This is a great way to build discussions
and individual understanding. I personally am a huge classic literature fan,
and just started reading Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy. For books like this one, or other classics like Pride and Prejudice, it is easy for
students to have comprehension issues. The language and the customs of the time
are very different than our own.
That’s where the double entry diaries come in handy. By
writing down direct quotes and page numbers, they can take a part that they are
struggling with and focus down on it. Then, in the next column, they can write
things under “This reminds me of,” “I wonder,” “I’m confused by,” etc. This
allows them to not only locate the content they are struggling with, but to
also have ways they can remember the meaning of the quotes. They can relate it
to things they know and understand from their own lives.
We always annotated our books as we read them in high
school. It was supposed to keep us on track with our reading, and we had an
assigned number of annotations we needed to have. I really disliked them and
would fake my way through them, seeing as they weren’t always thoroughly checked.
I believe these diaries are a much better way to get students involved in what
they are reading. It also helps clearly identify to myself as a teacher what my
students clearly need help with.
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